The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-09-23
IMPERIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBLE
LlTlES,

1t is wise as we watch the
growth of the Republic to study the
lessons of history. The great war
which eliminated at Waterloo was
caused by England's refusal to
abandon Malta. Napoleon did not
want the island for France. He
was willing to have it under Rus
sian protection, to allow the Knights
TO govern it, to neutralize it-any-
thing but remain with England. Pitt
saw as clearly as Napoleon
that Malta was the key of the
Mediterranean and that 1t could
only pass from England's hands to
menance her possession of India.
No persuasion, no threat would re-
lease his hold. The Treaty of
Amiens was denounced, Napoleon
exclaimed at the ''perfidy" of Eng
land, and, marching his armies
against her allies at Austerlitz and
Ulm, began the war which ended at
Waterloo.
This tenacity is of that imperial
temper which has founded and
welded the Empire of England.
There are other Maltas in other
seas. From Heligoland England
watches Germany and the Baltic
lF-onc Cib-eltar eho commando the
entrance to the Mediterranean,
Cyprus brings her nearer to Egypt.
Alden is her sentinel post to the Red
Sea. Hong Kong is the southerny
gateway to China, and she will PROF.
badly resume her control of Port
Hamilton in the North China seas,
and thus come nearer to Japan and
sCorea. She holds sway in the West
Indies and watches the United
States, as we learned to our cost
during the Rebellion, from Nassau.
There is not one of these sentinel
posts she would surrender without
a war. They are links in her chain
of empire, and to break link is to
break the chain.
On our own far Pacific coasts,
sweeping from the tropio to
the temperate, and, if we included
Alaska, to the frigid zone, we have
an empire which during the lives of
those now living will be the home
of many millions of men. 1t is
within three, perhaps two, weeks of
teeming Asia, whose commerce has
been the envy and the aim of civil
cation since the days of Solomon.
The inevitable destiny of this COM
merce, unless we throw away the
advantages of nature and the teach
ing of science. is to the United
States. We owe 1t to our fellow
citizens on the Pacific coast, who
with strenuous energy are building
this empire, to see that their com
mercial relations with Asia are
usurped by no other Power. This
belongs to what might be called the
imperial duties of government
such duty as led us to buy Louis
lana and the Mississippi River for
the West, to fight Mexico and win
Texas for the South and to overturn
the Southern Confederacy for the
general interest of all especially
the conquered members of that Con-
federacy. These duties, from which
we did not shrink when the national
welfare was concerned, are now in
volved in the safeguard of our Pa
cific section and the commerce of
the Pacific seas.
Hawaii is the Malta of the Pacific.
Her commerce is almost entirely |
with the United Statess. We are
bound to Hawaii by treaty of re-
So long as she is indie
pendent or free from foreign infu-
ences we are content that she should
govern herself in her own way, I'M
Ter an innocent, simple government.
When that government becomes so
helpless as to tempt the cupidity of
he maritime Powers it is then our
luty to shelter it under an authority
which the nayies of the world will
aspect. We take it for granted
hat DIR. Cleveland has made 1t